The Reluctant God
by TsukiDragon
Summary: Atemu is a pharaoh's young son in ancient Egupt. Yugi is the grandson of a modern archaeologist. Their worlds are about to collide.... Hiatus
1. SummaryDisclaimer

**The Reluctant God**

**Original Author: **_**Pamela F. Service**_

**YGO Redone Author: **_**Me**_

**I Own Nothing In This **_**YGO**_** Belongs To **_**Kazuuki Takahashi**_** & **_**The Reluctant God**_** To **_**Pamela F. Service**_

Sum- Yugi Motou knows Egyptian hieroglyphics as well as he knows his ABCs. As an archaeologist's grandson, he has inherited his grandfather's love for ancient Egypt – and he much prefers going on digs that studying in his boring English boarding school.

Atemu lived over five thousand years ago. As the son of Pharaoh Aknamkanon, he had many responsibilities – but he found court life dull. He loved adventure, but he had no idea what destiny the gods were holding for him…

The two should never have met – let alone become friends. But a walk in the hills near his grandfather's dig leads Yugi into strange territory – and to an ancient discovery that brings timeless adventure, mystery, and danger…

_Well Do You Want Me To Post This Wail The Voices In My Head Forgive Me?_

_V1- I Forgive You Mikk_

_V2&V3- WE HATE YOU MIKA!!!! _

_--_U_ It Could Take Some Time_


	2. Prologue

_Hay Guys I'M BACK _n.n_ YAY ME!!!!! Well Read & Be HAPPY _.

_Yami- _--u_ I've Got A Bad Fell is (tide to a char)_

n.n_ I'm Making… I… ah Mean I've ASKED Yami Here To Do The Disclaimer_

_Yami- _TT-TT_ someone save me _;-;_ (cries)_

_SAY IT_

_Yami- (sighs) Mika Does Not Own YGO If She Did We'd All Have Died __**Long**__ Ago_

_That's Right… HAH... HAY YOU BA-_

_The Reluctant God_

_-Prologue_

_**England: Twentieth Century A.D.**_

Yugi's eyes were fixed on the window, but he didn't see the cold, rain-smeared school yard any more than he saw the history book open before him on the desk. Instead, he saw the golden sun-warmed cliffs of Egypt. Above them starched clear unclouded blue. Below, threading a narrow belt of greenery, ran the river Nile. Under the cliffs he placed a village of low whitewashed houses, but his imagination left out the telephone poles and occasional TV antennas that usually sprouted about. Instead he put in an ancient-style temple, pennants flying, and pylons carved with monumental figures of gods and kings. For good measure, he threw in a luxurious royal barge sailing by and was just concentrating on the bejeweled figures on board when a shadow fell across her daydream.

He looked up into the scowling face of his history mistress. She did not bother with words, her expression said it all. He lowered his eyes to the textbook, resentfully forcing them to read about Parliament's squabbles with King Charles I.

All this was so boring, with edicts and insurrections and quarrels about the "divine right of kings". The ancient Egyptians would never have argued about that. Their kings had more than divine _right_. They were gods themselves, and nobody questioned it. He wondered if they really had been gods. But then, why not? Certainly if God wanted to work through other gods or even a man to get His message across, if He wanted to make a king a god in the eyes of his people, then surly He wad powerful enough to do it. Wasn't their school chaplain always saying how God works in mysterious ways? Maybe this was one of them.

Feeling the history mistress scanning the class again, he dutifully turned a page, unsure what he had supposedly read on the last one. His mind slipped back into Egyptian speculation. The aggravating thing was that they'd never know! He'd never be sure what it was like back then, how it was to live in a pharaoh's palace, or actually to be a mortal person and a god as well. They could read books, or dig in ancient ruins as his grandfather did – and he did whenever he could – but they could still only speculate. They'd never really _know_.

Idly, he picked up a pencil and began doodling on the margin of his book. "Yugi" in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The quail chick folod by two reed leaves for _Y_; no _u_ of course, because Egyptians didn't bother with most vowels; then the stand for a jar for _g_; and finally the tow reed leaves for _i_ that sounded like an _e_ – like in Teana (AN/ (shudder) I _**HATE**_ her). (1)

Fondly he looked at his doodling. How fine to have your name written like that on some grand stone monument for all eyes to see. Too many eyes had seen this, he realized suddenly.

"Mr. Motou, I appreciate that this is a history lesson, but aren't you perhaps in the century? Or, perhaps I should say, the wrong millennium?"

The girl next to Yugi sniggered. Ignoring her, Yugi grabbed for an eraser. "Sorry, Ms. Chono (2)" she was going on about defacing book, but he was thinking about the first part of her diatribe. Yes, he _was_ in the wrong millennium. In the wrong county, too. A secret smile played about his lips. But he wouldn't be for long not in the wrong country anyway. In a few weeks the term would end, and he'd leave all these boring people in their wet, cold England and rejoin his grandfather in Egypt. And if he couldn't actually span the centuries, their work there would bring him as close to that as anything could.

The mistress' berating was running down. Yugi muttered appropriate abject apologies and turned his eyes back to Cromwell's Parliament. But already he was seeing again figures in jewels and fine linen robes gathered around a canopied throne and a true divine king.

-

_Well There You Are The Prologue To TRG _n.n_ Now Please Excuse Me I Have To Get Yami Ready Fro The NEXT CHAPTER_ _(evil grin)_

_Yami-_ TT-TT_ Why Me Ra WHY ME!!!!!_

_Ra- __**Because I Like Watching You Squirm **_n.n

_Yami-_ OO

_Me-_ _Yes I've Got Ra On Me Side (does happy dances)_

_Yami-_ TT-TT

_See Ya Next Time Ja ne!_

(1)- Yes That Really Is His Name In Hieroglyph

(2)- You Know The Lady Form Volume 1 The One Yami Put A Shadow Game On.


	3. Chapter 1

_Hi I'm BACK!!!! I Want To Thank All The People Who Reviewed & My Friend Protector Of The Nameless For Helping Me Out_ n.n _Thanks_

_**Disclaimer**__ – I Own Nothing Here… Except My Brain & My OC (hugs brain & OC)_

-

_**The Reluctant God**_

_**Chapter 1**_

Atemu's heart beat fast with excitement. True, this was a kid's game. But since he was playing it, he might as well enjoy it.

Hounds and hares. At the moment, he and most of the others in the palace nursery were playing the hares. His youngest sister, Mika (My OC n.n), was being the devious little hound. That girl could be really weird at times.

Through the wooden sides of the linen chest, he listened to the distant excited voices. It sounded as if cousin Mana had let herself be caught, probably so he could help the little princess in her quest, though she probably didn't need it. Mika was yipping now like an excited hound following a scent.

They were several rooms away, giving him a chance to find a better hiding place. Lying on this heavy painted chest was sort of like lying in a coffin. He supposed that sort of thing was all right for tired old people – letting their bodies rest in a tomb while their souls lived in the afterworld with Osiris and the other gods. But he had too much to do still. Tombs and such made him uneasy.

Cautiously Atemu raised the lid. Nobody about, not even a servant, quietly he slipped out, taking deep, grateful breaths of fresh air (ME- & choked ATEMU- (whacks me over head) get back to the story ME- (pout) fin). Then he looked about for another hiding place.

This was the birthing room. Unused at the moment, it waited for one or another of the royal wives to give birth. Near the door stood a shrine to Tawert, goddess of childbirth. Smiling mischievously, Atemu sprinted across the room, his sandals making only a breath of sound on the woven mats.

He bowed, gave a word of greeting to the goddess, and slipped in behind the statue. The bulk of the hippopotamus goddess would be good cover, and she shouldn't mind protecting him. Hadn't she presided at his birth? They said she had actually appeared to Queen Sekhmet, his mother, and comforted her against the sudden storm raging outside. Reportedly it had been a storm more violent than any remembered in the Nile Valley. Lightning and thunder had shaken sky and earth. Befitting, they said, for the birth of royal twins. Atemu's tutor, the priest Mahad, was fond of telling about it and how he had slipped the amulets over both infants' heads – a crystal one for him, a gold one for his twin brother Yami (1), older by minutes and royal heir.

Atemu could hear his brother's laugh now, _'He must have been caught by the eager little dem-… er… __**hound**__.'_ the hunt would move this way soon. _'Time to find a new place to hid.'_ It was against the rules, after all, to stay in one place too long.

Thanking the goddess, he slid from her protective shadow and cautiously flitted out of the room, down a hall and into the heat and bright sunshine of the nursery garden (2). He looked quickly around, and then sprinted for a clump of papyrus growing beside the ornamental pool.

He rustled his way between the dry reeds and the outer wall of the pool. Above, the sky was bleached with heat, but here among the thin shifting shadows of papyrus, the richly colored tiles felt cool against his bare back. As he wriggled into a more comfortable position, the crystal amulet around his neck clinked against the deep blue tile.

Absently he looked down at the amulet, clear crystal carved into an upside-down pyramid with the eye of Ra in the middle (3). Occasionally he and Yami would exchange amulets to confuse people. Of course, if the priests and royal advisors found out, they got furious, going on and on about how Yami was to become king and Living God someday and his identity was nothing to be played with. Still, it was almost worth it to watch them go purple and launch into the predictable lecture,… _almost_.

Not that Atemu actually wanted to trade places with his brother. A king's training was arduous, and when the kingship finally came, it meant a life encased in duty. Every minute Yami would be surrounded by courtiers and advisors, and there'd be endless religious duties and tedious processions and audiences, with the king having to sit under his heavy regalia as motionless as a stone god. Their father, Aknamkanon, was a strong king and cared for his people, but he was burdened with worries and responsibilities. Only on military forays, like his recent one into Nubia, did he really seem to enjoy himself as king.

The sun-flecked pool glinted before Atemu's eyes like the oceans in adventure tales. No, what he really wanted was freedom and adventure like Sinihe, the story hero, who went off adventuring in distant Syria, or like the fabled shipwrecked sailor who met the great bearded serpent of the Red Sea. What he'd like…

With a rustle and a triumphant cry, arms locked around his ribs, Atemu sprang forward, rolling onto the broad edge of the pool. After a moment's flailing, both combatants toppled into the shallow water.

Shaking drops from his wild tri-colored hair, Atemu sat up in the water and looked at his giggling cousin. Mana's own short brown hair (she has brown hair… right O-o?) hid her face in a wet veil. The water still quaked around her as she laughed. "The hounds certainly caught you dreaming that time hare."

Devilish Mika ran up to the pool edge, laughing and smirking "He's not a hare, he's a frog! Look, Atemu's a frog!!"

"I am not!" he growled, standing up. He scissored his dripping arms before him like huge threatening jaws "I'm Sobek, mighty crocodile god, and I've come to eat bothersome little princesses. (A/N: My Oc's Only Like 7 In This Flick & Atemu's 18)"

Yami and the other children had found the courtyard by now and laughed as Mika Give a squealed in mock terror and fled towards the shadowy colonnade with a yell of 'come and get me then'. She wasn't watching were she was going and ran smack into the solid bulk of Teana, the eldest royal daughter.

The bejeweled, elaborately dressed girl scowled down at her little's sister, who wore a plan, now wrinkled, white dress with a string of beads around her waist. Then with a glance at the twins and a very smug smile, she turned and called down a hallway "Here they are. The two princes are here, playing like silly babies in the water."

"I am not playing in the water." Yami objected, quickly sitting by the pool and splashing a sparkling handful of water at his twin. "Though I might be persuaded to."

"All right then…" Atemu graded his brother around the knees and pulled him into the pool. Mana joined in the growing water war, until a deep authoritative voice cut through the noise.

"The tutors have been looking for the royal princes for so long, I began to wonder what happened to my brood." The pharaoh's tall figure from the shadows, setting the jewels in his broad gold collar twinkling in the sunlight. The expression on Aknamkanon's face quavered between a frown and a smile. "But I see they have only become water serpents."

The three children bowed their heads to the pharaoh and clambered hastily out of the pool. The white linen of the boys' kilts and the girl's dress clung heavily to their bodies and dripped into dark spreading pools on the flagstones.

The king's laugh slipped into the hacking cough that had plagued him since returning from Nubia. Aknamkanon cleared his throat "Well, since they're now water serpents, perhaps tutoring will do them no good. But then, maybe you two can do something with them." he said over his shoulder, and two men joined him in the sunlight. General Celtic (4), a tall blond headed muscular man, nodded brusquely at the dripping princes. "I believe, Prince Yami, we had archery practice scheduled for this morning. Would you care to accompany me… eh, after changing into drier clothes?" he said with a slight smirk.

Yami smirked slightly at his brother. "Well if duty must call, I'd rather face my lessons today than Atemu's. Aren't you learning the names of the seven keepers _and_ the seven watchmen _**and**_ the seven heralds of the seven gates of the afterworld?"

Atemu groaned and whacked his brother on the back of his head with a growl of 'don't push it'. Yami chuckled "Have fun." he muttered as he walked off with Celtic.

Before going Celtic gave a smirk and a wink to the second man who went slightly pink. Both Yami and Atemu rolled their eyes at this. _'They need to just tell each other already.'_ Atemu thought with a shake of he's head.

"Actually, your majesty, I had something else in mind for Prince Atemu today." A tall priest with short brown hair and long white robes (5) stepped up to the king after beating down the blush. "The prince has already done a creditable if unenthusiastic job of learning the gates of the afterworld. Today it is another lesson in the language of the Hitties."

Atemu groaned "Mahad, please (yes it's Mahad). You have already made me learn the languages of Syria, the desert dwellers, the Alantans, Punt, Nubia, and for some odd reason Elfish when Sir Celtic is the only one left. Why in the world must I learn Hittie, it is so unimaginably distant, and surely I needn't learn that as well."

Coughing, the pharaoh sat in a gilded chair a servant had silently brought up. "Mahad, since he was a baby you've been teaching him more languages than I even knew existed. I've never quite understood why, except that the god Osiris demands it. At least if Yami decides to take off and conquer the world, he'll have someone along to talk to people that get in his way, but get along you two and give me a few minutes to hide from my counselors and talk with the rest of this lot."

Immediately Mika sat herself down in the king's lap with an innocent little smile (_**'DEMON!'**_ Atemu's mind screamed.) and was joined by the children of various royal wives and finally by the nieces and nephews who shared the royal nursery. Teana, looking smug, stood possessively behind her father's chair.

Atemu sighed and, condemning himself to another lesson of boredom, turned to walk off with Mahad when Mana put a hand on his arm and whispered, "I hope you're better with Hittite than with hound and hares."

He scowled "Hittite may be northern barbarians, but I bet they'd more respectful than to dunk a king's son."

"Maybe, unless one is a king's niece." she laughed, then added, "Don't worry. If your father tells us any new tales from his Nubian adventures, I'll pass them on to you." she said before slipping away to join the others.

Atemu frowned slightly _'Thanks, Mana.'_ and he followed Mahad down the cool corridors of the palace. _'I am glad I'm not the heir, but way do I have just as much tutoring as Yami? The only difference is that mine is on such dull subjects.'_ he thought with a scowl.

For as long as he could remember, Mahad had been training him to be a priest of the god Osiris, Egypt's first king and now of the otherworld. Atemu had dutifully learned the many rituals and chants as well as the names and forms of all the other gods in the great pantheon.

But in addition, Mahad insisted he be instructed in the languages of every foreign people and learn about their lands and odd customs. Atemu had gotten so that he absorbed new languages with comparative ease, though he imagined that was mostly from a desire to get it over with so he could linger on the more interesting parts of his schooling, such as use of the bow, spear, sword, and throwing stick.

The two turned at last into the schoolroom. Sunlight slanting through the narrow windows danced with dust motes, and the warm air carried the familiar dry smell of papyrus rolls and sooty ink. Mahad gesture for Atemu to sit, already so absorbed in thoughts of Hittite that he'd forgotten the state of the prince's clothes. Obediently Atemu sat cross-legged on the mat, but the day's heat had already dried the kilt to only a mild dampness.

Mahad opened a wooden chest and began clattering through a jumble of clay tablets. Atemu watched him with an odd affection. For all that he was a hard taskmaster, the priest was also a friend and, next to Yami and Mana, his closest companion.

Mahad looked up at his pupil with his aquamarine green eyes and handed him a tablet. "Now here's a letter in Hittite. Let's see how well you remember the symbols. Read it aloud for the sound first."

Atemu scowled at it. Bird tracks on a slab of mud. "Not only can these Hittites not write sensibly, their words are far too long to get the tongue around." Before his tutor could open his mouth, he added, "I know, I know 'Different people, different ways.' right? I didn't say I wouldn't try."

The lesson had promised to drag on through interminable hours, but halfway through Mahad stood up, glancing at the pattern of sunlight and shadows outside his window. "I think that's enough theoretical work for the day. I suggest you spend the rest on a practical demonstration of the foreign ways we've been studying."

"The delegation from Kush?" Atemu said, his face instantly brightening.

Mahad nodded his brown head. "Yes this afternoon traders from the tribe Kush are making offerings to the pharaoh in gratitude for his protecting their trading routes thru Nubia. You might wish to attend."

Eagerly Atemu followed the suggestion, not just to avoid his studies, but also to get a close view of the foreigners. It wasn't as good as actually venturing into foreign countries, of course, but at least it carried a hint of that sort of thing.

When, out of breath and slightly disheveled, he reached the audience chamber, the long pillared hall was already filling with members of the court. Receiving a trade delegation was hardly a major state occasion, but visitors from the far south with their outlandish clothes and odd gifts were always intriguing.

The pharaoh's portly, heavily bejeweled vizier, stalking grandly towards his place near the dais, turned and frowned in disapproval at Atemu appearance. Hastily the prince tried to smooth his rumpled kilt. It had dried in hopeless wrinkles. In order to be less conspicuous, he slipped behind a group of harem women, whose main concern seemed to be with their own clothes and with what the visitors would wear.

When several more courtiers had crowded into the room, the court chamberlain raised his staff and announced the arrival of the pharaoh, the Living Horus, the Great God, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khakheperre, Son of the Sun, Aknamkanon, Living Forever; and that of his Great Queen, Sekhmet.

Atemu's parents entered the hastily hushed audience chamber. Aknamkanon had chosen not to wear the heavy double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and instead wore the striped-linen headcloth and golden cobra. Sekhmet was wearing the light filigree jewelry Atemu knew she preferred over her heavy gold and enamel necklaces. He imagined his father was grateful for the informality of the occasion. With the annoying cough he'd picked up, it would be hard to maintain the cold godlike rigidity require for state ceremonies.

Prince Yami had been made to change into a fresh well-pleated kilt and was standing self-consciously at the edge of the dais that held his parents' thrones. Most of the other children clumped excitedly below him and to the side.

Rising murmurs were stilled by the herald's call and the opening of the great gilded doors. The first of the Kushites bowed deeply, then proceeded proudly up the long walkway toward the thrones.

Atemu pushed his way forward for a better look. The men were large and dark. Their hair, bound with beads and feathers, was a curly black. Their robes were bright and fringed; and several, Atemu noticed, had cheeks marked with ritual scars to show their tribes.

The first two carried large bunches of white ostrich feathers, which bounced and swayed as they walked. Another pair carried a litter weighed down with the skins of exotic animals. Then came the bearers of ebony caskets, several containing ingots of gold, the other holding rare unguents and semiprecious jewels. The women near Atemu exclaimed at these and crowded forward for a better look.

Four porters, followed struggling under a pair of enormous curved elephant tusks that brought gasps of admiration. These dissolved into chuckles at the sight of the short, squat man who followed and the even shorter little man who rode on his shoulder.

Atemu slid into the front ranks. He had heard about these little creatures. They weren't really men but animals from the mysterious woodlands south of Kush. The creature was covered with red-brown fur, except for his face, which was as wizened and wise-looking as an old man's and his long tail curled and twisted behind him like a snake.

The little man with his monkey passenger took his place below the thrones, then turned to watch the entry of the final member of the company. This man was taller than the others, and his skin was a shiny black. But more impressive yet was the creature pacing before him at the end of a tasseled leash.

Atemu had seen leopard skins before, mostly on priests, but he'd only imagined the living animal. Never had he thought it would stalk along with the power, arrogance, and beauty of a god. Its magnificent spotted coat rippled and shone as if inlaid with gold and ebony. As it passed, the watching courtiers drew back with muffled exclamations of admiration and fear.

The creature's reception from the monkey, however, was altogether different. It began chattering, squealing, and jumping about on its keeper's shoulder.

The leopard didn't decide to notice this until he and his keeper had joined the others before the king. Then he wrinkled his lips and snarled at the monkey, revealing great white fangs, sharp as knives.

At this the monkey broke into a frenzy of squeals. Suddenly it leaped through the air, pulling the rope from its startled keeper, and landed directly on the head of the leopard. Before the cat could react, the monkey was off again, bounding for refuge among the cluster of royal children or more precisely on Mika's head, who looked at it for a second with wide eyes before whispering two words "Oh no." just before the leopard, snarling in rag, crouched then, with ripping muscles, sprang after his assailant.

In those few seconds, Atemu seemed to see everything in slow, precise detail. Chattering in alarm, the monkey leap off Mika's head and took refuge in Mana's arms, where it struggled to hide itself. Yami jumped down from the dais were he and Mika tried to untangle the little hands from her hair. None of them noticed the leopard launch himself towards them.

Without thinking, Atemu broke free of the screaming women and ran forward. Maybe he could catch the trailing leash or at least put himself between the beast and his unsuspecting family.

The snarling blur of gold and black was nearly upon him. Then suddenly arms grappled him about the chest, and he crashed to the tile floor. Dazed, he rolled over and struggled to sit up. Children and courtiers were screaming and running, but somehow Celtic, who had been in the back, had grabbed the halter again. Nobody seemed to be hurt.

Angrily Atemu turned to his own assailant and was startled to see Mahad beside him on the floor, trying to straighten his priestly robes and pull his gold necklace around to the front.

"Why did you stop me?" Atemu demanded, too angry to be respectful. "He could have torn them apart."

"Possibly, but there were others to stop him. And he most certainly _would_ have torn you apart if you'd taken one more step."

"Well, it's my life!"

"No, your highness, it is not. Your life is Egypt's."

"Bah!" Atemu stood up, then helped his tutor to his feet. "I'm not the heir, the future god. What I give my life for is my choice."

"Royal princes don't always have a choice, your highness. Where duty leads, you must, in the end, follow."

Having determined that no harm had come to anyone, the courtiers resumed their places, the royal couple returned to their thrones, and the Kushites prostrated themselves, begging forgiveness. It would probably not happen again see as the leopard was now purring happily as Celtic pet it. _'The wonders of elves. To bad they're all died I would have loved to meet more then just Sir Celtic and learn more a bout there people.'_ Atemu thought as he realized, to his pleasure, that he could understand the Kushite's abject speeches before they were even translated. Yet his mind kept straying back to the incident.

In saving him from certain danger, Mahad had exposed his brother to possible danger. Atemu supposed that Mahad had simply been exercising his personal duty. But somehow he couldn't dismiss the uneasy feeling it gave him, as if the nets of duty were closing about him as well.

The feeling was still with him that evening when he and Yami had crawled under the sheets on their narrow rope-strung beds and lay looking up at the deep black sky and its glittering stars. On hot nights the two boys chose to sleep on the roof.

Yami's mind seemed to be somewhere else as well. "Kakure." He said thoughtfully.

"Huh?"

"What do you think of 'Kakure' as a throne name? 'Souls Dawning.' You always used to like that. Do you still think it sounds right?"

"Oh sure. If I had to be king, I'd still choose that. Kakure Atemu. But barring any more leopards rampaging your way, I won't have to worry about that sort of thing."

"No, but I will and sooner than I thought."

Atemu felt suddenly cold. Sensing his alarm, Yami said "No, no, it's not that. Father's just fine. But tonight he said he wants me to become coregent at this year's festival. He said I'm of age now and he became coregent with his father about now. But I don't know, Atemu. I'm not sure I'm ready."

"Of course you are. You won't have all the duties of a full king, but you could start work on some of those things you're always planning."

"True," his brother said dreamily. Then he flipped over onto his stomach and looked at Atemu lying in the next bed. "and I've figured out the fist thing I'll do. I've talked it over with Inpy, the architect and with General Celtic, and they think it might work. I'll build a canal right through the rock at the first cataract. Then nothing can stop our ships from going up river into Nubia. We can launch a much bigger campaign against the Nubians, strengthen our forts, and have a stronger hold on the gold mines and trade routes.

"Then after we subdue the Nubians, I think I'll march into Syria like Sinuhe in the story, only for real."

"Sounds good," Atemu said sleepily. "I'd like to see Syria."

"Of course you must come with me, too. I couldn't handle all that without your help. Besides, you can speak all those outlandish languages."

His brother yawned and smiled at the picture of the two of them adventuring off into Nubia and Syria. Yami talked on and on, his words gradually stretching out and slurring into sleep.

Atemu too was sinking warmly away when a sudden cold thought shocked him awake. If Yami became coregent then he, Atemu, would become the crown prince, at least until Yami married and produced sons of his own. And if he were crown prince, any hopes he had for real freedom and adventure would vanish like water poured on sand.

The net was closing tighter and tighter around him.

'_I won't let that happen! All that duty Mahad drones on about doesn't have me yet.'_ he had a plan, a fantasy he always played with when duties got too boring or he had trouble falling asleep. If he was ever to turn it from a daydream to reality, he realized suddenly, now might be his last chance.

'_I will have my adventure and by Osiris and all the gods, no web of duty will stop me!'_ he thought, eyes burning a fiery crimson with determination.

--

_DON'T KILL ME!!!! ;; PLEASE!!_

(1) – they're two separate people in this for those who are two studied too figurer it out.

(2) – they're in the nursery because they don't wont to disturb there father & they're trying to get out of lessons

(3) – is _**NOT**_ the puzzle

(4) – yes the Celtic Guardian

(5) – the ones he always has on _NOT THE DM ROBES_

_And Please R&R_


	4. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_For Disclaimer See Sum Or First Chap._

_I'm Not Died See _n.n_ Thou I Might Be After This Chap. Is Over _O.O_ You All Might Kill Me _Q-Q

**Chapter 2**

Yugi Mutou shielded his eyes against the glare of the sun and its metal-bright reflection on the surface of the Nile. He wouldn't wear sunglasses, only tourists did that. For him, the baking heat and blinding glare meant one thing: He was home.

As long as he could remember, Egypt had been his home. Most of his education had come in afternoon sessions in their Cairo apartment, or in tents on one of his Jii-chan's (1) excavations he'd pursued these lessons with great diligence so as to ward off more formal education.

Even so, his widowed Jii-chan would occasionally emerge from his world of archaeology long enough to feel a wave of guilt about somehow neglecting his grandson. Then Yugi'd be sent for a stint at an English-speaking school in Cairo or, worse, to that boarding school in England (2).

Those English stays were a grim exile. What did he care about "interacting with one's peers" or "acquiring social graces"? He already knew most of the academic subjects as well as his classmates, and the latest soap opera (XP) or rock stars were about as boring and irrelevant to him as Cromwell's squabbles with Parliament. More so really, because of the way his peers drooled over them. Anything they liked was automatically suspect. Not fair perhaps, but he didn't want to be fair. He wanted to be himself.

He had grown up speaking Arabic as soon as English and Japanese, reading Egyptian hieroglyphics as early as his _ABC_s. He'd learned the ancient Egyptian king lists _way_ before he'd mastered all the Henrys, Richards, and Georges of English history. When his schoolmates dreamed of becoming models or video stars, he dreamed of discovering a treasure like Tutankhamen's or of translating a hieroglyphic inscription that would shed new light on some murky part of Egypt's past.

Yugi looked up from the hypnotic ripple of sunlight on the water, to where the east bank of the river slowly passed by their boat. His scowling thoughts of English school faded like a bad dream. Here was the stuff that made his daydreams. The bleaching sun of midday had beaten all depth an color from the scene, until the cliff, clustered villages, and even the narrow green strip of crops and palm trees looked like some faded painting on an ancient crumbling wall. Out here on the river, the steady northern breeze kept the heat bearable, drying the sweat as soon as it formed on his bare moonlight colored arms. In the old day, it would have billowed in the bright striped sails above a graceful wooden boat. It took great effort of imagination to insert that image in place of the drab, rusty tug now shrugging and coughing its way upstream. Still, whatever century, this was Egypt. Yugi hugged himself happily.

The other passengers were mostly local people using the old boat as a convenient bus between villages. The few tourists aboard had been grumbling for hours about having chosen the cheaper milk run instead of the glamorous cruise ship that stopped only at major attractions. Yugi looked at the gabbling group with studied scorn. But he was too happy at the moment even for good scorn. He should pity these people, really. They weren't lucky enough to be Egyptians.

The boat was drawing closer to the east bank now, and Yugi could see a group of children playing by the crumbling quay in front of their village. One girl, maybe his own age, stood up and waved at the boat before returning to her game.

Yugi sighed. Self-illusion shattered again. He might feel at home here, but he hardly looked it. Not the way that girl did with her skin the color of sun-baked earth and hair a long glossy black. His pale skin didn't even seem to tan no mater how long he stayed in the sun. His hair was out of place no mater what part of the word he was in, long black hair lined with violet that reached mid thigh was bound back into a high pony tall on top of his head, while golden bangs shaped his child like face. His eyes were wide and made him look five years younger than he was and were an abnormal violet, that stood out in crowds. He had for gone his normal leather attire for a silk white shirt, that hugged his slender frame, and black blue-jeans, that hung loosely on his slim hips. In his eyes he was an all to short kid that would never fit in. He sighed again, no one could really mistake him for an exotic son of the Nile.

Their boat was pulling into port, a village not much larger than the others they had passed, but with a slightly more substantial quay. The pale sandstone cliffs that for endless miles had paralleled the river dropped away here. Behind this village stretched a great wadi, a dry river course that cut like a jagged scar through the eastern mountains, forming an ancient route to the Red Sea.

Yugi left the railing and went to fetch his bag. It was heavy, filled mostly with books. His Jii-chan would have the clothes and other gear he needed at their camp. He was glad his wretched school had a good long winter break so he wouldn't miss all of this year's digging season. With any luck, his Jii-chan might be so wrapped up in the excavation he'd forget to send him back for the spring term.

The boat bumped into the wharf, ropes were thrown and made fast while orders and greetings were yelled back and forth. The tourists huddled protectively together, taking pictures of the quaint mud-brick village. Several of the local passengers crowded toward the gang plank and worked their way down, waving and calling in Arabic to people on the bank. With a deliberately pitying look at the foreigners, Yugi joined the jostling natives.

At the bottom of the ramp, several small children crowded around him, asking pathetically for money. "Oh no. Go play your little game on someone else." He answered back to them in fluent, negative Arabic, they giggled and moved in search of a more gullible target. Yugi smiled. They knew a native when they heard one. From the village café further up the bank, floated the whining music of a transistor radio. Several of his fellow passengers headed that way, talking about glasses of tea. Yugi giggled as a scruffy yellow dog barked at him. He gave it a quick pat on the head before it trotted off to bark at someone else.

"Yugi, over here!"

Looking up, he saw a short old man with a gray beard, bangs much like Yugi's stuck out under a bandana.

"Jii-chan!" Yugi hoisted up his bag and eagerly started through the thinning crowd toward him. "You came to meet me yourself."

"Had to send off a telegram, so why not? And we've been making such wonderful finds, Yugi! An absolutely marvelous site!"

He grabbed Yugi's bag with one hand, gesticulating with the other as they walked along. "Had no idea when we started here it would turn out so well. It's a whole village buried partly under an avalanche. A quarry workers' village, mostly Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasty. There was a lot of quarrying done up the wadi here."

'_That's so typical of Jii-chan,'_ Yugi thought as he trotted beside him towards the Land Rover, _'immediately launching into his enthusiasms. No "How was the trip?" or "How's England Doing?" just the dig and the new discoveries.'_ Yugi shook his head but he wouldn't have his Jii-chan any other way. He was home again.

Soon they were jolting up the broad wadi, following not so much a road as a series a faint tire-tracks running in the same direction over the hard gravelly earth. Dr. Mutou talked on enthusiastically, whale Yugi half listened and half studied the desolate landscape. The dry air shimmered in the heat, sometimes casting phantom pools of water along their route. This was his first excavation away form the Nile Valley, and the farther east they moved, he decided, the more lunar everything looked.

The wind-sculpted ridges, folding down toward them on both sides, seemed bare of all life. But occasionally there were patches of coarse grass or clusters of spindly acacia trees that marked a well or small village. Once they glimpsed a pair of fleeing gazelles, and later in a side wadi saw the beehive domes of several Bedouin tents. Camels and a small herd of rangy cattle wandered nearby, tended by several dusty children who grinned and waved as the Land Rover rumbled past.

Not far beyond this migrant settlement, they turned into another side wadi. Yugi craned to look out the front window and watch the towering cliffs close in on both sides. The west face loomed in purple shadow, but the eastern cliffs still glowed a warm red in the afternoon sun.

"Well, here we are!" his grandfather said proudly when the engine finally sputtered into silence. At the base of the eastern cliff, the low sun highlighted the waffle pattern of an excavation grid. The diggers who would be swarming purposefully over the site in the cool of the morning had returned to the cluster of Bedouin tents that Yugi could see further up the wadi. From there, the hot dry breeze brought voices calling in Arabic and the growling gurgle of a protesting camel.

From the canvas tents near the foot of the cliffs, a number of staff, English and Egyptian, hurried out to greet them, most of them known to Yugi from past seasons. Again he felt the warm flush of homecoming.

After a spate of greetings, Solomon showed him to their tent. "Our old green one finally gave out – canvas completely rotted. The small finds are being done in that red tent over there. There're quite a lot of them. That landslide apparently covered the place sometime during the middle of the Twelfth Dynasty, and the quarrying operation was abandoned right afterward. Some of the quarries seem to have abandoned even earlier. Most of the good stone was gone by then any way.

"We're finding lots of everyday things – beads, pots, work tools. I hope you want to do small finds again. We've a good pot restorer this year, but nobody as good as you at registering small finds. No inscriptions for you yet, though we live in hope."

The more his grandfather talked, the happier Yugi felt. This was a good site all right, but better yet, his Jii-chan was so excited about it, he really might forget he was supposed to leave again in a little over a month. We live in hope, indeed.

As the days went on, Yugi felt as happy as a cat of Bastet basking in the warm Egyptian sun. The only marring shadow was the creeping calendar date when he was to return to the cold and damp of a British winter, the oppression of boring lessons, and the company of people who made him fell both awkwardly inadequate and loftily superior.

Angrily, he shoved the shadow to the back of his mind, and to keep it there threw himself fully into the excavation work. From dawn to midday, men wielded picks and shovels, and boys carried baskets of dirt away from the cuttings. When the remains of a house were reached, work slowed to the careful use of trowels and whisk brooms. Occasionally Yugi helped with this or with sifting the dirt for small items like beads and potsherds. His main task, however, was in the tent, cataloging and drawing small finds. When his grandfather was around, he'd haul out the books he'd brought and ostentatiously study them between spells of work. Surely Jii-chan would see how little he needed formal schooling.

His world settled into a self-contained routine. The only impingement from the outside came ever few days when jets of the Egyptian Air Force streaked overhead. Obviously they were trying out either new plans or new pilots, and occasionally a show-off would swoop low over the wadi to impress the dust growers and scatter their camels and goats. The workmen always reacted with shouts of mixed anger and admiration.

Usually, however, afternoons were quiet and devoted to work in the tents. On one such, Yugi made an elaborate show of turning from drawing beads to reading a textbook on medieval France. But soon he pushed it gloomily aside. His grandfather, engrossed in a book of his own, hadn't noticed a thing. And anyway Yugi didn't care about medieval France any more than he did about the dull chattering students he'd be studying with in a few weeks. The only interesting part in this French stuff was the chapter on monasteries and nunneries. In those days, young people could shut themselves away from the world, devoting themselves to what they considered important, and they weren't made fun of or dissuaded but praised and admired. He sighed, _'Wrong century again, Yugi.'_

"Jii-chan?" he said suddenly. His grandfather, deep into an old excavation report, only grunted.

"Jii-chan, you don't have to send me back to England next week. This is such an important site, I really should stay here. I brought all my schoolbooks with me. I can keep up."

"Mmm." His grandfather, Solomon, looked up and blinked as if just stepping from a cave. "No, Yugi, I think you should go back. A boy your age really shouldn't lead such a lonely life. Of course, you're a wonderful help to me, you always are. But it's selfish of me to keep you here, away from your contemporaries."

"But I'm not lonely! And those 'contemporaries' and I have absolutely nothing in common. We don't even have anything to talk about. It's _there_ that I'm lonely, not here."

Solomon smiled weakly. "I know, Yugi. I've made this sort of thing my life, and it's fine for me. But a hansom young man like you really ought to have more options. Let's just give that school a little more of a chance."

He returned to his book but not before Yugi said "You don't want me here because of what happened to dad! That's the reason isn't it!" then quickly stood up and left the tent. Solomon sighed, a sad look lingering in his eyes.

The breeze that fretted at Yugi's hair was hot and dry. But already the worst heat of the day was lifting. _'I'll go exploring.'_ Real things like rocks and heat and scuttling lizards would at least keep his mind on the present, not the cold, wet future, or the dark past.

Yugi'd already explored most of the area around their camp and the ancient village. But he had never really gone up to the quarries that tunneled into the hillside. He'd found those dark eyelike openings in the cliffs rather brooding and hostile. But Yugi felt rather brooding and hostile himself at the moment, so they seemed the perfect goal.

Solomon and others had been to the lower ones. They'd found a few broken work tools and even some graffiti scratched into the rock. Maybe Yugi could find something exciting like that.

Yugi skirted the now quiet excavation and found the faint path scribbling up the cliff towards the caves that were the quarry openings. The silence around him seemed vast. It was still to hot for hawks to be circling and calling in the high blue sky. The only sound came from the furnace-dry wind rasping over rock and gravel. This kind of loneliness he loved.

Outside the first cave, Yugi saw a group of hieroglyphics scratched into the rocks. Someone had highlighted to figures with chalk for better photography. For a moment he studied the simple inscription. "Inyotef made this" – the ancient equivalent of "Kilroy was here." Hesitantly he reached out and touched the carvings. Four thousand years ago, Inyotef, a stoneworker, had written this so he might be remembered. Yugi felt the same tingling awe that always came when he touched the past in this way.

Almost reluctantly he left the inscription, with its plea for immortality, and stepped into the cool darkness of the quarry mouth. Yugi let his eyes slowly adjust to the gloom, wanting to put off using the artificial glare of his flashlight as long as possible.

Gradually Yugi made out the tunneled galleries and the massive pillars of natural stone left to hold up the roof. As mines, this seemed to be a relatively shallow one, and he soon returned to the sun and moved farther up the cliff to what had obviously been a much more important quarry. Not far in however, it was blocked by fallen rock, and after a brief exploration he returned to the entrance. Leaning against a smooth, cold rock, he considered whether to go back to camp.

Sunlight gleamed off the iridescent back of a beetle, scuttling through the dust, it looked like an ancient jeweled scarab. Smiling Yugi told it so in ancient Egyptian. He loved using the long-dead language. It was his own special, secret language. Yugi used it to tell off his schoolmates, and the more they treated him oddly for it, the more he used it on them. Now he commented again on the little bug's beauty as it hurried along a faint trail between the rocks.

And there was a trail, he could faintly see it now. Long disused and rock-strewn, it traced its way farther up the cliff. He scoped up the little scarab, stood up and followed it, climbing higher and higher as the mountain folded back on itself. Finally the faint track led to a third dark gash in the cliff.

Frowning Yugi looked in the opening and jumped a little when the scarab, that was sitting on his shoulder, seemed to nudge him in. _"Are you sure?"_ he asked in ancient Egyptian. The scarab nudged him again, so stepping coughly into the cool opening, he instantly could tell that this man-made cave was larger and higher than the others. It also lacked the dry, sterile smell of stone. The air reeked with an odor like burning rubber. _'What is __**that**__?'_ Yugi wondered. A few steps into the gloom, and the stone began to feel soft and slippery under his feet. He switched on his flashlight, playing it over the oozy floor, than apprehensively up to the ceiling.

The ceiling _moved_. It rustled and shivered as if muscles were twitching under some dark animal hide. Suddenly bits broke away and began darting through the air, squeaking and chitterling. _**'Bats!!'**_

Yugi hated bats, they creped him out. His schoolmates teased him about liking to hang around with mummies, but couldn't take a little bat. He didn't mind mummies, they were dead. Bats weren't!

With a cry he threw an arm over his head and a hand over the scarab, so it wouldn't fall off, ducked low, and ran. His flight took him further into the darkness. He stumbled over a stone floor no longer slippery with droppings and finally collided with a pillar.

'_Today is __**not**__ my day.'_ Yugi thought as the feel of the cool, rough stone calmed him down. He liked animals, all animals except large growling dogs and bats. At least there weren't any this far into the quarry. They clustered near the entrance so they could pour out at evening in a squeaking, flittering cloud.

Starting up Yugi looked over to his left shoulder, _"You okay there. I'm sorry about that."_ he called to the scarab still sitting there. It hummed softly to reassure him as it got steeled again. Smiling he flashed his light over the pillar, its irregular surface faceted by tools of bronze some five thousand years earlier. Courage restored, he began exploring further back.

At first a dim gray haze filtered in from the entrance, but when he turned a sharp corner, that was gone. Yugi had only his flashlight. The galleries of this mine had been cut deep into the heart of the mountain. In his shifting light, the remaining rock glowed a deep blood red. Cold began seeping from the mountain's bones into his. The silence about him was absolute, _'Like the silence of the tomb.'_

At the end of the gallery, a small side room jutted off. Hesitantly Yugi stepped into it. A dead end, it seemed. He shivered. He had no fear of the dark, but this was more than dark. In this black crypt, so remote from the outside world, it was easy to feel the presence of other worlds. Perhaps one inhabited by those strange animal-headed gods worshiped by the diggers of these quarries.

Yugi snorted _'Great five minutes in here and I'm starting to sound like a philosopher. Maybe I hit my head harder on that rock then I thought.'_ he shook himself, he'd grown up with things Egyptian. Even their weird mythology was more familiar than frightening. Resolutely he turned back toward the entrance, only to jump in alarm. A thunder like boom rang dully through the mountain.

Yugi almost laughed in relief. Those hotshot Egyptian pilots were buzzing them again, sonic boom and all. They must have shot by much lower and faster then usual. The scarab hummed softly again calming Yugi down considerably. _'Wonder if the pilot going to be bawled out for such a stunt.'_ he thought absentmindedly.

The reverberations rolled through the mountain, sinking finally into a murmur. They were soon followed by other sounds though. A distant rumble, a dry shifting and grinding, then a great clattering roar as the entire mountain collapsed. _**'OH FUCK! AN AVALANCHE!!'**_

_(1) – Jii-chan Grandpa_

_(2) – he goes to an English-speaking school because there's no Japanese-speaking schools around & to England because it's closer._

n.n' _Please Don't Hurt Me He's Fine I Swear!! On A Better Note Anyone With Ideas For The Scarab's Name Please Tell Me (runs off)_

_Yami & Atemu –_ 9-9 _(sighs) She Always Does That._

_Yugi – Guys A Little Help Please (buried under a pile of rock shaped pillows)_

_Yami & Atemu – (dig him out)_

_Yugi – Thanks_ n.n _Please R&R_


	5. Arthur Note

**Arthur Note**

I'm sorry for not updating, but recently I have been sick and spending most of my time asleep. So as of right now all of my fics are on hiatus so that I can work on them without death threats. _The Reluctant God_ will be updated after I have typed up all the chapters so that I can get them out faster. As for _In Memories They Come_ I have come to a complete halt and can't come up with anything more which was the problem in the beginning. I don't think I ever really had an actual understanding of what I was doing or where I wanted to go with it. I guess that's how trial and error works, and I'm very surprised so many people like it, but I have no idea where to go from here. If someone would like to adopt it I might consider doing that. I have also been thinking on a YGO/HP crossover but I won't go into detail just in case it falls threw too. I am sorry about all of this and will try to get TRG going again ASAP and I will be taking ideas on what to do about the IMTC problem I'm having. Again sorry.


	6. Alert

There is a scheme brewing up with the FF staff and they're planning to take down any and every story over the M rated section (stories with Yaoi, Yuri, het lemons, song based stories, extreme violence, etc...)

So on June 23rd, there will be an official Black Out. Authors will not be able to log in, read, or review stories. Those who do not have accounts are also affected by FF's decisions too. Please participate and spread the news! If enough authors take part in this event, FF will know that we mean business. Also, if anybody has any information on when this purging on M-rated fics will be, please contact me. I would like to know in advance.

SPREAD THE WORD!

Copy and paste this into your story updates, communities and forums!

Thanks!


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